Six persons including a woman who impersonated as Naxalites and tried to extort Rs 5 lakhs from a village sarpanch in Chhattisgarh's Gariaband district have been arrested, police said on Thursday.
Gariaband Superintendent of Police J.R. Thakur told The Pioneer that the six were Gautam Chakradhari, Prahalad Nayak, Rohit Nagesh, Gomendra Dhruv, Om Prakash alias Chhotu and Payal Manikpuri.
The mastermind, Gautam Chakradhari, is a surrendered Maoist who was also arrested in 2019 when he posed as a Maoist, the officer said.
The police probe began after the Khudiadih village sarpanch complained on August 25.
Confessing their involvement, they told the police that after failing to meet the sarpanch on August 22-23 night, they warned the family they will return after a few days. But they got arrested before they could go there.
The police seized six Maoist uniforms, three air guns, two walkie-talkies and Maoist pamphlets besides a car and a motorcycle from them.